There was an almost anticipatory silence that permeated the air as Ichigo stood across from the emerging school bully. The two boys had quickly gone to change into their combat gear and now they were sizing each other up from across the small arena that was within the coliseum type classroom that they were taking these lessons in.
Ichigo had seen his fair share of bullies and they always managed to piss him off in one way or another and this idiot was no different. Brown haired, blue eyed, and used his impressive stature to try and prey on the weak.
While he was going out of his way to bully those less fortunate than he, he was also tainting the air with negative emotions. He was pretty sure that he had heard that Port dude say that that was what drew the Grimm to humans in the first place and if Cardin was going to perpetuate that then Ichigo felt that it was his duty to put a stop to it before it really began to get out of hand.
While he would have been fine with a non-sanctioned fight that would have at the very least dissuaded the boy from acting out too much, he supposed that a sanctioned one was interesting enough as well. He was perfectly fine with humiliating the bully in as big an audience as he could. It would make the defeat more memorable for the tall teen.
Ichigo took a minute to examine his opponent more closely as they waited for Goodwitch to start the match. The teen's biggest factor was his size, but that did little against Ichigo. He was pretty sure Chad was taller and Ichigo himself was no slouch.
The second thing he had noticed was that the brown haired teen was covered in immaculate looking armor that had some sort of bird design splashed across the chest. Ichigo did notice that the armor seemed a bit dented in places and that the shine was probably the result of Cardin caring for his armor just before he went out in public this morning. Whatever else he could say about the boy he knew that the Winchester trained hard to get those dents and cared for his livelihood.
The final thing that Ichigo took in was the boy's choice of weapon. Cardin was someone who used a massive mace, which gave Ichigo the information that the boy was ridiculously strong for his age group. He probably wasn't on par with Chad, but nobody was really on Ichigo's best friend's level. Chad was some sort of monster in human skin, plain and simple, even though he was probably one of the gentlest souls other than Orihime that Ichigo knew.
"Combatants I want you to be aware of your scrolls and your Aura meters during the fight. It is critical to be observant of these if you are to become competitive within the tournament circuits. I will be the judge of this bout. Once I have called the match you are both to stop immediately. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Goodwitch-sensei."
"Crystal, Professor Goodwitch."
The blonde haired professor gave each of them a stern look before accepting that she had been able to impart the importance of her words on the two boys.
"Very well then."
Goodwitch then raised her hand slowly before bringing it down in a decisive motion.
"Begin!"
It seemed that the silence could be contained no longer as various students started cheering for which student they wanted to see win. Ichigo was certain he heard Ruby say something about kicking butt and he was positive that Nora was screaming to "Break his legs!"
Apparently that was going to be something of a trend. He should probably have a conversation with his fellow orange head, but he wasn't entirely sure he was ready to deal with someone like Kenpachi packed into a tiny slip of a girl.
While the cheers and jeers were washing over them, the two contestants merely stood still for a moment as Cardin slowly slid into his preferred stance. Ichigo approved of it. The boy's feet were set apart and he was slightly leaning forward in anticipation for an attack. However, while the brown haired boy had taken a stance and lifted his weapon aloft, Ichigo made no move to reciprocate. In fact, Ichigo hadn't even yet drawn his weapon, standing with his arms to his sides in a loose sort of way. He merely cocked an eyebrow as he waited for Cardin to make the first move.
Apparently this was the wrong thing to do as the older boy scowled at the orange haired teen.
"Are you going to actually draw that over sized can opener, or am I just gonna pound your face in?"
Ichigo felt Zangetsu shift into being more ferocious within his mind, but he was able to calm the blade down by stating that the kid didn't know any better. For all that Cardin was older than Ichigo; he still had a lot of things to learn about the world.
The only interesting thing to come from this exchange was the fact that some of the cheers had turned into confused murmurs, as if they couldn't quite believe that Ichigo was simple standing there. Ichigo decided that he would see just how strong the older boy's resolve was (although he had a pretty good idea).
"I think that with the level of resolve you carry your weapon, you won't even be able to put a scratch on me."
His words had the intended effect of quieting the crowd and riling the older boy up. There was a snarl of incoherent rage that was heard by all as Cardin suddenly sprinted at the orange haired boy. Before anyone (other than team IUOY) could stop him or knew what was happening, Cardin was already swinging his mace in a two handed grip towards Ichigo's exposed chest (he was wearing his Shinigami outfit after all).
The mace collided with Ichigo's chest full on and it seemed that even Cardin was caught off guard by the fact that Ichigo didn't even try to dodge. In fact it looked as though the boy might actually be slightly horrified at the prospect that he might have just killed a student. That was good, Ichigo could work with that. He was also able to see that Cardin was practically reeking of fear. He supposed that that was more typical of a bully than one might expect.
Ichigo was about to say something, but Goodwitch beat him to it.
"Mr. Winchester!"
Cardin winced at the tone directed at him, but Ichigo paid it no mind. With Cardin's attention on Goodwitch, he was no longer seeing Ichigo and most likely thought he had just accidentally killed someone in a fit of rage.
"We never condone attacking someone who does not have their guard up in the training arena! Quick, get Mr. Kurosaki-"
Ichigo decided it was probably a good idea to step in before he wasn't able to drive home his point.
"Actually Goodwitch-sensei…."
Pretty much everyone's attention snapped back to Ichigo, who was standing with Cardin's mace on his chest looking entirely fine as though a gigantic man hadn't just swung his weapon at him with full force. A few of them looked over to his aura gauge and were amazed that it hadn't even gone down. It was as if Ichigo hadn't even taken the hit.
"…I'm perfectly fine."
Cardin slowly backed away from Ichigo, his mace now hanging limp in his right hand.
"But…I…"
Ichigo merely shook his head in disappointment at the future bully. He didn't want to break Cardin down, but it was a necessary step in order to show him what he needed to do in order to grow as both a person and a fighter.
"I told you, with that type of resolve, you won't be able to put a scratch on me."
Ichigo's eyes flashed as he took in everything about Cardin and remembered that quick spark that allowed him to understand why Cardin was trying to become a Huntsmen. All Ichigo could see was the one thing he hated in any sort of warrior, fear. Geta-boshi had had to beat the fear out of him and it was the only way he really knew how to help Cardin.
"All I'm feeling from you is fear, Cardin. It's the overriding emotion within your soul. I'm sure that when you dodge, you think to yourself, 'I'm afraid of getting hit.' When you try and protect someone you're thinking, 'I'm afraid of letting them die.' When you try to attack, 'I'm afraid of hurting someone.'
These are unnecessary things within a fight Cardin."
Ichigo slowly began to stalk forward as he continued on, not realizing that he had captured everyone in the classroom's attention.
"When you dodge you should be thinking, 'I won't get hit.' When you are protecting someone, 'I won't let them die.' And finally if you're attacking, 'I will hit them!'"
His piece said Ichigo cocked his fist back and the students felt an intent flood the room, Cardin seemed to snap out of his stupor because he raised his weapon, but it did nothing. Ichigo merely weave around a rather weak swing and then sent a jab into the walking tank's chest.
It was fast and brutal, but Ichigo completely demolished the older boy's armor and smashed straight to his chest, blowing through the aura and armor with the piercing ability he had learned against Kenpachi. While the Aura thing was somewhat cute, they had nothing on the monster that was the 11th Squad Captain.
Cardin's eyes immediately rolled into the back of his head and he went down like a puppet with his strings cut off, the boy's Aura immediately turning to the red.
There were a few heartbeats where there was complete silence in the room and then there was nothing but chaos.
"Holy shit! Did he just punch through Cardin's Aura!?"
"Forget the Aura, he blasted through Cardin's armor with his bare fist!"
"Is getting through Aura with one punch a thing!? Why did no one tell me it was a thing!?"
"God damn! He just laid out that guy!"
Ichigo ignored the commentators as he looked over a Glynda. She seemed to be just as shocked as the other people within the room if her gaping mouth was anything to go by. Honestly you'd think that after she had seen him demolish a Goliath that she would be able to open her mind up to the possibilities that he could take care of himself pretty easily.
"I think you need to call the match, Goodwitch-sensei."
Ichigo's soft voice seemed to cut through the various freak outs going around in the classroom and Glynda cleared her throat to draw everyone's attention to her once more.
"Yes, it seems that I should. The winner of the match, Kurosaki Ichigo! Would the rest of team CRDL please take your leader to the infirmary to be examined?"
Ichigo nodded once at the boys who ambled down to collect their leader and they decided to give him a wide berth as he made his way back to his seat with his own team. Ishida was shooting him annoyed looks as he made his way back to his seat, but Ichigo couldn't really figure out why until he took a glance around the room.
It seemed that he was drawing every eye in the crowd and too late he remembered Yoruichi's advice of laying low. He groaned internally as he imagined the lecture that the black cat would try and enforce upon him. He could already tell it was going to annoy the hell out of him.
Well there was no use cry over spilt milk, a metaphor he was sure that Yoruichi concurred with. He would just have to deal with his minor fame as it came along. He was sure that just like most schools this episode would die down and fade from everyone's minds in time.
Blake was now fairly certain that she was having a mini panic attack within her mind. It felt as though every time she interacted with the glasses wearing boy from team IUOY that it always ended in disaster for her. The boy just felt so distinctly different from all her other peers that she couldn't help but be curious.
Now she had seen what the orange haired leader of the team could do.
She was certain that when he had stated that the various people at the table wouldn't be able to even make him draw his weapon that he had been joking. It had also lit a competitive fire in her that she had seen reflected in all the others' eyes.
Apparently it was not a joke.
She was sure that all of the others were coming to their own realizations of that as the orange haired leader made his way back to his team. It looked as though her danger senses about the team in general were more spot on than she had thought.
While she wasn't a fan of the burgeoning bully that Cardin had been, especially his treatment in regards to Faunus, she had never seen someone just punch through another person's Aura like Ichigo just had. It made the teen distinctly memorable.
"Holy shit. I've never seen anything like that before."
Ignoring their young leader's reprimand of Yang using as she called it "Bad Words" Blake had to agree with her partner. The hidden Faunus glanced over towards the blonde. While her partner definitely seemed more wary of Ichigo now, she also had a competitive glint in her eye that screamed of trying to challenge the other leader. It seemed that her partner enjoyed a challenge. She supposed that was consistent with what she had seen so far.
"I don't know why you guys are all surprised; this is the leader of the team that took down that huge Grimm in the Initiation."
It seemed that the voice of reason would come from none other than the leader of team JNPR. While Blake hadn't interacted much with the blond boy, she was surprised that he was able to just shrug off the feat that had just happened as nothing too surprising, although if Blake thought about it in the context that he had she supposed she could see his point.
It looked as though her own leader was willing to speak up on the issue as well.
"Yeah! I mean, Ichigo and his team are super strong, they had to have been to have fought the Goliath when we first met them!"
Blake could definitely agree with that statement, seeing as how she kept on being threatened by the black haired boy of the team. She wasn't sure exactly what she had done to get under the boy's skin (other than him just being the sort to hate secrets being kept from him), but he hadn't told anyone her secret so she supposed she was grateful to that for the time being.
Finally the students were calming down as Goodwitch gained command of her classroom once more. While they were all suitably shocked at how effortlessly Ichigo had decimated the tall Huntsman-in-training, this was still a class and there were more fights to be had within the classroom.
"Thank you for the demonstration Mr. Kurosaki, but please draw your weapon next time so as to avoid any kind of confusion in signaling whether you are ready for combat or not."
Ichigo gave a languid shrug down at the teacher, seemingly completely oblivious to the storm that he had created with his actions.
"If they can make me draw my blade, then their resolve is strong enough."
Blake blinked at that kind of presumptuous attitude that Ichigo had displayed earlier in the day, but it carried quite a bit more weight now that he had proven that he could back his claims up.
"Very well, for the time being we will continue on with random placements to decide who will fight who. Later on we will let you volunteer and there will be matches that will allow you to test your mettle."
Her instruction done, Goodwitch flipped a switch and they began their matches. Nothing quite came close to matching the exciting first match, but they were entertaining fights nonetheless. Most were over fairly quickly, but there had been a couple of longer matches within the fights.
Yang and Nora had been paired up and their match had devolved to the two berserkers essentially slugging it out until one of them ran into the red (apparently Yang could take a hit slightly better than the hammer wielding girl) and there was an interesting tie in Weiss and Ruby who had had a bout.
Eventually they went through most of the students gathered there. Team IUOY had been called on twice more, once with Orihime and the other with Chad, and both had won their fights handily. They had both faced off against another of Cardin's teammates and won easily enough, Chad with his sheer power and fighting ability and Orihime by wearing her opponent down before utilizing a throw to cause a ring out.
The last member of team CRDL had the misfortune of going up against Pyrrha and the only fight that had been faster was most likely Ichigo's. Jaune and Ren's fight had ended with the black haired boy completely dominating the fight.
As the competitors slowly dwindled down, some of the students going to the infirmary to make sure none of the hits did any lasting damage, Blake realized something.
While all of her team had gone she had yet to be called. The only other competitor that was really left was Ishida. Hopefully she wouldn't have to face the white clad boy from team IUOY. Of course she apparently forgot that the universe hated her.
There was a moment when she felt as though her breath might have stopped when her picture flashed onto the screen next to the glasses wearing boy. Her encounters had not ended well for her so far with him and while she knew she was curious she couldn't imagine exactly why the teen was so keen on scaring her into submission. All it really did was make her think that the team as a whole was hiding something.
She snorted at the thought as she made her way down to the arena. Although she had been on the receiving end of the boy's scrutiny and he had somehow figured out her own secret, she felt as if he was doing it to protect his own team from her insatiable curiosity. People always seemed to forget the second phrase to the curiosity killed the cat saying. She was sure that the satisfaction would be well worth it.
The two made their way to the arena that had seen its fair share of fights all day and was now looking a little worse for wear. Professor Goodwitch stood waiting for them with her hands clasped behind her back. The blonde haired professor had been observing all of the matches so far, and with the exception of the first one, she had been able to keep her cool as teenagers beat the hell out of each other.
"I assume that the two of you know the rules well enough by now. Make sure to keep an eye on your Aura gauges and stop once I call the match."
She paused as both of them slid into a loose stance. She noticed a bracelet dangling from the boy's wrist with a peculiar looking cross on it and he seemed content to merely stand with his feet apart and wait for the match to start. Blake was sure that he was trying to analyze her if the glint from his glasses as they stood apart from one another was anything to go by.
The two teens gave a nod of acknowledgement towards the Professor and she raised her hand up as she had done countless times since she had started the class today.
"Begin!"
Her hand dropped once more and Blake wasted no time in crossing the arena floor, sticking close to the ground as she did so. She got in Ishida's face in an instant and led with an upward slash towards him.
She was surprised when Gambol Shroud connected with something that stopped her momentum cold. Her eyes widened as she took in some form of sword that Ishida was wielding that was letting off a small hum.
However, the boy dressed in white didn't stay that way for long as he suddenly lashed out with a kick that connected and she was sent sailing away from him. With a small flip she landed gracefully on the other side of the arena. While the hit had hurt more than she had though it would from the slim boy, she glanced at her gauge and was glad to see that not too much damage had been done.
"It seems that Kurosaki is not the only one who has to deal with someone full of fear and doubt."
Blake felt herself tense at that comment. Even in passing, comparing her to Cardin made her blood boil. The tall teen hadn't done anything too extreme as of yet, but she had been seeing his like her entire life. She decided that she would show this holier-than-thou boy what she thought of his opinions.
"Don't compare me to him."
With a flourish Gambol Shroud changed into its gun form and she put forth some suppressing fire to keep him occupied. While she was doing that she unfurled the ribbon within her weapon and flung it towards her opponent.
Unfortunately he easily dodged the attack and gained ground as he hit aside a few of her dust rounds. Blake's eyes widened at that, but then she was on the defensive from his strange sword. She was able to hold him back for a moment, but ultimately it was not enough and he was able to gain another clean hit on her as they broke apart from their dance.
Blake was beginning to feel the fight if her erratic breathing was anything to go by. She was going to have to be a bit more creative with her strategies if she wanted to catch her opponent off guard. It almost seemed as if he was anticipating her moves before she even made them.
"I'd say it's because your expression is a bit too open, even when you're trying to keep it guarded."
She almost dropped her weapon at that, but merely huffed in annoyance. Her eyes then shifted from her opponent's weapon to take in more about him. She was a little peeved that his expression hadn't seemed to have changed throughout the entire course of the fight. In fact, she was pretty certain that all that was there was apathy. However, if she looked deeper she might be able to see another emotion as well, one that she couldn't identify.
"I suppose I should also apologize for my treatment of you. Despite the fact that I can be a bit paranoid, I shouldn't have taken out my frustrations on you. As an apology I'll make this quick."
With that said, the black haired boy straightened his stance and made it so that he was standing with as little of his body facing her as possible.
"As a courtesy I'll tell you this now, my Semblance is unique in that any kind of weapon I use…"
Blake's eyes widened as the blue former of the saber suddenly distorted and a beautiful shining bow was now in the teen's hands.
"…is always some type of bow."
With that said he immediately fired off a shot that Blake was just barely able to bring her weapon up to deflect it. Unfortunately, not only was Ishida's accuracy with a bow extremely proficient, he was also incredibly fast as well. Once she had blocked the first attack two more sprang to life in front of her and Blake felt her eyes widen as she found that she would not be able to dodge in any way shape or form.
She felt the two arrows hit her like a truck and she was sure that she was knocked off her feet. Apparently it still wasn't enough to completely knock her out thankfully, but those two clean hits made her Aura plummet into the red.
"Enough!"
Goodwitch's voice rang out within the arena and Ishida immediately let go of the form of his bow. Blake watched in a sort of morbid fascination as it disappeared into blue motes of light.
"The winner is Ishida Uryuu! Well done."
Goodwitch continued on as Blake groggily got to her feet and looked towards her team. While they looked disappointed that she had lost, she saw that Yang was giving her a discrete thumb up before turning her attention back to the professor.
"That was a well fought first day. I want all of you to go over what you have learned from your fights today and be ready for more in the days to come. Remember that your Aura gauge is the most accurate way to tell how you fare within the match that you are in. And remember that this…"
Here Goodwitch tapped her forehead in significance.
"…is the greatest weapon that you have."
With one more glance around the room, the students were dismissed. Blake was pretty sure that her ears were still ringing (both of them) and that she probably needed to go and see what was going on in the infirmary. With a sigh she followed after her teammates as they walked out into the halls with Yang gloating that she was the only one who had technically won their match in the first Combat Class, earning her the glares from the rest of the team.
Blake supposed she would just let Yang gloat for the time being, she just wanted to go and find something for the headache that she had.
Ichigo had thought that the hype about his win over Cardin would die down within a week, but he was slowly coming to realize that he was dead wrong. All of the other matches that he had had in the time since had ended in much the same fashion without him interjecting his speech on fear before giving whoever was his opponent a swift defeat. He had become essentially undefeated and he was sure that some of the contestants were beginning to eye him with a glint that he recognized as vaguely reminiscent of Kenpachi.
He was sure that as soon as the ban of volunteering was lifted that he would most likely have a slew of challengers that kept on coming to him non-stop. He didn't mind as much as he probably should have, but he was sure that eventually he would get annoyed at constantly being challenged by people who just weren't on his level yet.
He supposed he had gotten spoiled with the fights that he had had to deal with in Soul Society and he knew that in his heart of hearts he had enjoyed them more than was probably good for him.
Oh well, he guessed he would just have to take the hits as they came.
Oddly enough he hadn't really seen the tall boy act out ever since his beat down that he had received. Ichigo supposed that he was able to get through to the tall teen after all. Team CRDL as a whole seemed to have become more focused and Ichigo thought that it was nothing but a good thing that could come from that.
Everyone here was training to be a defender of Humanity and while there were quite a few differences to the Shinigami that he had seen, he suspected that there were quite a few similarities. Ichigo just couldn't shake the feeling that something bigger was going on around in this society than what he could see. Then again he was only within a school. True the teens here were for the most part normal teens, but maybe that was the reason he was so baffled.
They were definitely facing the extinction of the human race on this planet, but the world seemed more at peace than was natural. He was impressed at the fact that there were even cities within the kingdoms that had sprouted up. He supposed his thoughts could be for another time.
At the moment they were once more at the breakfast table joined by teams RWBY and JNPR. Currently Nora was discussing some sort of story that Ichigo was fairly certain was a crazy dream and for some reason Ren had intimate knowledge of said dream.
Jaune was looking forlornly into his cereal as he had been bested in every fight he had had so far, though he at least seemed to be getting slightly better. Everyone else who had won on that first day had also been draw off of their high horses due to the fact that everyone had been defeated at least once even the people in Ichigo's own team. True they had all been ring outs, but the fact that they lost was still in the cards (Ishida and Chad had both lost to Pyrrha, who had done something to throw them off balance before capitalizing).
In fact the only two undefeated within the group were Ichigo and Pyrrha. He was sure that the redhead was going to challenge him to a match as soon as she was able. That date was fast approaching as they neared one week being spent in this new reality. Ichigo was beginning to be a little concerned at the fact that Geta-boshi hadn't been able to contact them the entire time they were here.
It had become so concerning that Yoruichi had gone out into the city to see if there was some sort of message out there that they had been missing as they stayed at Beacon. For the time being it looked as though the four teens from an alternate reality were flying solo.
"Are you ready for the matches today, Ichigo?"
Ichigo slid his attention to the redhead, ignoring the twinge of annoyance at her using his first name. The culture was completely different here and had more of a Western feel.
"I've been looking forward to that more than I probably should. You might be one of the only people here that can make me draw my blade."
Ichigo had stuck to his guns and only used hand to hand in all of his bouts thus far. However, he wasn't entirely sure he could do that against Pyrrha. The girl was unbelievably skilled. She was the only person to have taken out Chad so far and had only won due to her somehow throwing the big teen off balance for an instant. It had resulted in a ring out and the win had been given to Pyrrha.
He was sure that the red haired girl didn't have the complete dominance in power, but she made up for it by being scarily smart in her battle prowess. The only person he had personally seen that reminded him of her was probably Yoruichi. The two utilized others' powerful strikes to redirect the momentum of a fight and turn it to their advantage. Combine that with what he was pretty sure was some sort of polarity Semblance (he had figured that out when he had seen Chad sent flying out of the ring and the gentle giant talked about it later on that day commenting that he had felt his usual belt buckle give a strange tug before he was thrown from the ring) and the girl was probably one of the strongest fighters at Beacon that wasn't a teacher or him.
It looked as though his comment had kept the fire lit in the other girl's eyes as well if he was judging her expression right. She looked as though she could hardly wait until they had gotten into another Combat Class.
However, it seemed that their little oasis of calm was about to be interrupted.
"I think you might be a bit busy during that class of yours, kid."
Ichigo blinked at the unfamiliar voice butting into their conversation and turned his head to see a man leaning casually on one of the support pillars that dotted the cafeteria. He immediately set all of Ichigo's danger senses on alert, something that he hadn't really had happen while he was here except for whenever Ozpin was around.
The man was dressed in a grey button down shirt and had on black shoes and slacks, a maroon cape slung over his shoulder. He had a somewhat scraggly appearance, with a beard growing in and his hair looking somewhat unkempt. He was looking over the group with assessing red eyes and Ichigo was able to see that he had some sort of weapon being held in the spot where Ruby was fond of storing her own Crimson Rose.
Ichigo was going to ask who the hell the guy thought he was, but he was beaten to the punch by a high squeal of joy and suddenly a red tornado passed him and clung to the now amused looking man's upheld arm. Ichigo blinked at that and subtly looked toward his team to see if they had any idea what had gotten into the leader of team RWBY. The blank stares that he received back were at least able clear up the fact that they had no idea what to make of this predicament either.
"Uncle Qrow!"
Well, Ruby's exuberant greeting was at least able to inform anyone who was in the area exactly what relationship the two had and gave them a name to work with.
"Did ya miss me!? Did ya miss me!?"
The man seemed to think it over for a minute before offering up a devilish smirk to the girl clad in red.
"Not even a little bit."
Ichigo had to admit that it was somewhat amusing to see the wind taken out of Ruby's sails so effortlessly, if the puffing out of cheeks in indignation at her uncle's antics was anything to go by.
A soft meow drew the attention of the teens gathered around the table and Ichigo was startled to see that Yoruichi had made her way to the other shoulder currently being unoccupied by the weapon nut. Apparently Ruby's uncle was some sort of big shot if the way Yoruichi was looking at their group was anything to go by.
"Yeah, yeah, business before pleasure and all that."
Ichigo blinked at that. Apparently Yoruichi had decided to let Qrow in on her ability to talk. It was the only explanation Ichigo could think of to be able to understand why Qrow would be taking orders from a cat perched on his shoulder.
The man flung Ruby off his arm, but the girl merely laughed as she performed a flip and landed in a flurry of rose petals.
"It was nice to see you, Ruby. Yang."
He gave a small nod to both of the girls before turning his attention to team IUOY.
"While I'd like to catch up with the two of you, sadly duty calls and I'll have to take a rain check."
Ichigo heard Yang snort at that declaration.
"Flighty as ever, Uncle Qrow."
Qrow's smirk merely widened at that, seemingly pleased with the statement his blonde haired niece had made.
"You know me, girls. I take my job very seriously."
There was a moment when the three merely looked at one another after the man had said that, but then they all burst into laughter.
It was ended as Qrow decided to address the team he had come to see in the first place.
"Ozpin wants a word with you, team IUOY."
Ichigo and his friends tensed at the more serious tone that the man had said this in. While he seemed to be somewhat laid back, it wouldn't do to assume every little thing about the man was the same way. He was obviously extremely competent if he had the Headmaster's ear and was able to talk to Yoruichi.
"Alright, lead the way."
Ichigo stood from the table and his friends followed his lead as usual.
Qrow grinned at that, his playful demeanor coming to the forefront once more now that the message had been delivered.
"I feel like ya need to loosen up, kid. Life's too short to be stressed all the time."
With that said the man turned around and began leading team IUOY out of the cafeteria and towards the main building that Ozpin resided in during the day, leaving behind a confused group of two other teams.
It was infinitely quieter on the grounds of the school since the majority of students were eating at the moment. As they made their way towards Ozpin's building Ichigo and his friends were content to pass the trip in silence, giving an occasional nod to the students passing by on their way to classes.
"So apparently you guys are supposed to be pretty strong."
It looked as if Qrow wasn't in the mood for a quiet stroll if his speaking up was anything to go by. Ichigo felt his signature scowl deepen at the man's almost mocking tone, but he was saved from answering by the bubbly female on their team.
"I think that everyone here is amazing! This place as a whole is awesome! I'm having fun learning about the various things in regards to Vale and Remnant!"
Qrow blinked at the girl's somewhat non-sequitur. He got over his surprise fairly quickly though if the low chuckle was anything to go by.
"Not what I was leading toward, kid, but I suppose it's nice that you're settling in, wouldn't want our inter-dimensional travelers not to fit in after all."
Ichigo and the others tensed at his casual declaration of knowing about their status as travelers, something that he was pretty sure Yoruichi hadn't actually told the staff when she had met with them the first time. He was beginning to wonder if he should try and take out the man who probably knew too much.
"Relax. Good ol' Oz had you pegged the minute you took out that Goliath by yourselves. It's something that not even I would be comfortable letting kids your age try. By the way, how old are all of you? While you all carry yourselves pretty maturely, there's still a hint of some gangliness, like you're not entirely used to the sizes your bodies have become. So either you've all been de-aged in some sort of weird time travel thing, or you've all recently hit puberty."
Ichigo blinked at that rather spot on assessment of them and his danger sense of this man went up a notch. If he could get all of that information just from looking at them, then he was someone who was incredibly adept at gathering information. Probably someone who was entrenched in whatever sort of cloak and dagger activities going on within this world.
Before any of them spoke, Yoruichi decided to let her own voice be heard.
"I can already tell this coming conversation is going to annoy the hell out of me, don't keep adding to the stress, Qrow."
Ichigo blinked, somewhat amazed that his teacher was already on a first name basis with the hobo looking man. He supposed there was more to the man than he had thought if Yoruichi had already revealed that she could talk to him (mostly due to the fact that the man wasn't freaking out about a talking cat, it was a pretty good litmus) and that she seemed to be fairly comfortable on the man's shoulder, as if she had been there for the past few days.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get this over with, Oz is probably gonna ask for some sort of miracle to work, but I'm still not entirely convinced that these kids can pull it off. And if they can, there's gonna have to be some sort of price. It's how these sort of things usually work."
Ichigo rolled his eyes at that, but the rest of his team stayed silent with the exception of their female teammate once more.
"You're not a very trusting person, are you Qrow-san?"
Qrow merely let out a huff of laughter before pulling out a small silver flask from somewhere on his person and taking a generous sip.
"Princess, you don't get in the business that I'm in and trust easily if you want to live long."
With that said they finally made it to the building that housed Ozpin's office and made their way to the elevator.
As they were going up Ichigo noticed that Ishida's eyes narrowed in thought towards the floor. He was sure that his glasses wearing friend was calculating something in that head of his, but he honestly had no idea what it could be. Ichigo figured that if it was anything truly important than the other teen would break his silence and warn them of any incoming danger.
"Just to let ya know, just 'cause I don't trust ya, doesn't mean that I don't respect ya."
Ishida was the one to answer this time as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, the artificial light of the elevator glinting off of them.
"It's just as easy to respect your enemies as it is your friends, a prudent way to live I suppose, but most likely lonely in the long run."
Qrow merely smirked at the comment and took another swig from his flask. Ichigo supposed that that was the best sort of answer they would be getting from the dark haired man.
There was a quiet ding as the elevator reached their destination and the four teens followed after Qrow as he walked into Ozpin's office.
There was a green tint to the room, probably due to the windows, while various gears were slowly churning within the office. It was more massive than Ichigo had been expecting and if the curious looks on his friends' faces were anything to go by, then they too were suitably impressed at the extravagance before them.
Directly in front of them, sitting at a desk that had much the same theme as the rest of the room was their elusive Headmaster. Currently his ever present mug was sitting on his desk steam lazily drifting upward from it as the man himself sate with his hands furled in front of his face. Standing somewhat behind him and to his right was their stern Combat Class professor.
As soon as he saw them enter, Ozpin gave a small smiling and gestured towards the four chairs that had been placed in front of the desk.
"Welcome. Please have a seat."
Ichigo and his team warily sat down and Yoruichi relocated to Orihime's shoulder while Qrow made his way over to the other side of the desk, taking his place on Ozpin's left and leaning against a pillar within the room with his arms crossed.
There was a beat of silence as the four teens got comfortable, but it was broken fairly quickly by the Headmaster.
"I believe that I am the one holding all of the cards at the moment in this bargaining stage."
The man clicked something in his hand and suddenly there were various screens around the desk that showcased what had happened when the Grimm had been charging its bastardized cero.
"We have been studying the creatures of Grimm for quite a long time, and I think that it is safe to say that we have never seen one begin to attempt the move that it is displaying here. However…"
Ozpin clicked something else and with a jolt Ichigo realized that now he and his friends were on the screens within the classroom. He watched on in interest as Ishida and Orihime worked in tandem to take down the Grimm and keep the casualties to a minimum.
"…it seems that your team was quite prepared for the threat."
Ichigo leaned back in his chair at that statement. He knew that Qrow had let on that Ozpin knew of the fact that they had probably traveled between dimensions somehow, but he hadn't expected the man to put two and two together with the footage that he was seeing.
"Just what do you want out of this, Headmaster? We've already agreed to help you and with the recalling of Qrow, I believe it's time to fulfill our end of the bargain. If these videos are something that's showing you proof of something, please enlighten us."
Ozpin sighed as he once more steepled his hands at the black cat's response. Ichigo was also a bit confused as to why the man was showing them this video as if it was some sort of evidence.
"I just wanted us to be on the same page. I've showed this to both Qrow and Glynda, but have refrained from showing it to any other colleagues. Quite frankly, I believe we have a mole in our system somewhere that is feeding the other side all the information that they could want."
Ichigo nodded at that, he supposed that being discrete about them was probably a good practice seeing as Ichigo and his friends didn't really exist outside of the school.
"This was the thing that allowed me to confirm my suspicions with Qrow. Who I believe has now completely confirmed them."
He paused as the man leaning against the pillar interrupted.
"Yeah, they're some sort of dimensional travelers, they were definitely too shocked to be able to play it off as a joke when I dropped those suspicions on their heads."
Ichigo blinked at the Hunter's admission. Wait that had been some sort of hidden test!? The Substitute Shinigami tried to look over at Yoruichi, but the cat was giving nothing away.
"Thankfully, even if I did somehow make that claim to others, they would merely see it as a joke, or a prank of some sort. In this case, truth is far stranger than fiction."
Ozpin took a minute to take a sip from his mug.
"However, in the cases of fictions, I am no stranger to things stepping out of legend."
Before the Headmaster could go on, Qrow had interjected.
"Oh come on, Oz! I still say that they're too green for the job you think they can handle. I'm also not entirely sure that she…"
Here he pointed at Orihime, who flinched back a little at the aggressive gesture.
"…can do what the cat says she can do. I'll admit that dimension hopping is pretty out there, but how are we gonna believe that the girl can heal anything, even having your soul torn in half?"
While Orihime was looking a bit nervous at those statements, Ichigo decided to grab a problem by the horns as he always did.
"Look, pal. We already know about the person that's under this tower. We know that there's a problem. Orihime is the best damn healer I've ever seen and my dad's a doctor! If Yoruichi thinks that Orihime can heal whatever is going on, then Orihime will damn well be able to heal whatever is going on!"
Ichigo didn't notice the slight dusting of red that spread across Orihime's cheeks as the orange haired boy defended her, but some of the others in the room did.
Qrow took a minute to look the teen up and down, before he defaulted back into his lazily cocky posture.
"I've seen a lot of things kid, but it's pretty tough to beat what has happened to the person that's waiting down in the underbelly of this tower. How'd you know that she was here anyway?"
Ichigo glanced at Ishida and while the glasses wearing boy looked a bit annoyed he had also realized how Ichigo had come to his conclusion.
"Once Ishida started sending suspicious looks down at the elevator floor I extended my own senses and was able to sense her there."
Qrow let out a low whistle at that. Apparently he was impressed at getting one upped by a bunch of teenagers.
"Props for that then. However, I can tell you right now that I don't think you're ready for what we need to tell you to heal her. It's something that I've been working towards all my adult life to keep a secret. Why should we have to break our silence now to a buncha dimensional brats who might be able to help."
Ichigo felt a bit of his temper begin to flair and as a result so did his reiatsu. A blast of that had the three teachers suddenly staring at him much more warily than before and he heard Yoruichi sigh in exasperation. That was the only warning before he was clawed in the face.
"Gah! What the hell!?"
It had the intended effect of getting himself back under control, but it had hurt like hell. It didn't help that the damn cat was looking entirely unapologetic.
"I told you before to try and keep a lid on your reiatsu here. That was for being an idiot and not following my advice. Maybe next time you can go Bankai and accidentally kill half the students here."
While it was said in a joking tone, it seemed that the teachers were not going to take that threat lying down. Ozpin was the one to interject before Qrow could make the orange haired teen even more riled up.
"Is it possible for Mr. Kurosaki to actually be able to do that?"
Yoruichi snorted at that, but she made a sort of shrug with her feline shoulders (it was incredibly odd to see a cat shrug).
"I supposed it might be possible, but highly unlikely. Ichigo has to actively choose to give that much outpouring of energy and even the bit you felt was him being annoyed more than anything."
Ichigo pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes as he took in a deep breath and then let it out as he tried to center himself more. He had been doing pretty well in reigning in his massive reiatsu and he didn't want to accidentally kill anyone regardless of what Yoruichi said. He hadn't been expecting to be this annoyed when he was talking to the people within this room.
"I think the kid needs a test."
Ichigo's eyes snapped open and his chocolate brown ones met Qrow's blood red.
"If you have that much faith in them, Oz, then it shouldn't be any kind of problem to test them out a bit right?"
Ozpin merely sighed at that. He couldn't deny that Qrow's idea had some merit. He was sure that his ornery Huntsman would be able to push Ichigo more than any of the students at the moment. Ozpin had seen the videos of the matches that the teen had been in and he was certain that no one with the exception of the boy's team and possibly Miss Nikos would be able to actually force him to use his weapon.
"Very well."
Ichigo was a bit surprised at Ozpin caving into the older Huntsman's request, but he supposed that the man just wanted to see what would happen when the two clashed and if he was able to keep calm under pressure.
With a nod, Qrow made his way over to the teens and they stood up to size the older man up.
"Well then, kids, let's see if your leader has what it takes."
His piece said, the man began making his way towards the elevator.
"Follow me and we'll get this over with quickly."
Sighing Ichigo stood up and followed the raven haired man out.
They had travelled out into the forest that they had been in during the Initiation and the older Huntsman was looking around at the clearing that they had found. Ichigo had retrieved Zangetsu and was scowling at the man with his arms crossed in annoyance.
He was a bit pissed that he had to somehow prove himself to this maniac Huntsman and he just wanted to get the show on the road already. It looked as if Qrow had other ideas though.
"Alright, this should probably be good."
The man spun on a dime and fluidly drew his weapon in a smooth motion. Now that Ichigo was able to see it better he realized that it was a sword, but he was certain that it had different modes just like all of the other weapons he had seen in this world so far.
"Now, this isn't a sanctioned fight so we're not going to deal with pesky Aura bars. We're just gonna wail on each other until one of us yields."
Ichigo narrowed his eyes at that. He had the feeling that Qrow was severely underestimating him. Well he would show the smug bastard just what happened to people who did that.
"If that's the way you want it to go."
His friends had taken up positions in tree branches and were watching on in curiosity as Qrow took a stance, but Ichigo didn't budge. He was also able to see the other two full fledged Hunters out of the corner of his eye.
"I think I'll mediate for this duel, Qrow."
Qrow scoffed at Glynda's words, but he gave a small nod of acceptance. Not before muttering under his breath though.
"Tch, taking the fun outta everything."
Glynda merely rolled her eyes before bringing her hand up much as she had to begin all the other fights that he had seen in this school.
"If that's all, begin!"
The woman brought her hand down and Qrow wasted no time in getting up in Ichigo's face.
Ichigo's eyes widened as he realized that the man was a bit faster than he had thought, but he needn't have worried because Qrow's initial downward slash did about as much as Ichigo had expected it to do.
The attack merely grinded on Ichigo's chest for a moment before the man hopped backwards with a frown on his face. It was only there for a second when the familiar smirk made its way back to the man's face.
"Someone's got a big Aura. Makes me think you might be compensating for something."
Well, Ichigo had never heard his reiatsu output described quite like that. The man really needed to get his mind out of the gutter. However, it that's the way the man wanted to play, then Ichigo would just wait until he tired himself out.
Qrow's smiled widened at the expression on Ichigo's face and he once more took up his stance. Once more the man closed the distance between them, but Ichigo's danger senses suddenly blared to life and he raised a blocking arm to swat away the blade, feeling a sting in his arm in the process.
The orange haired teen looked at the wound in surprise, but suddenly found that Qrow had used Ichigo's block to swing around and try to land a back handed fist on the teen. With a startled yelp he jumped back and grabbed the hilt of his blade and drew for the first time since he had taken down Grimm within the forest they were fighting in.
He exchanged a few frantic blows with the raven haired man, and he could tell that his battle lust was beginning to show, although the same could be said for the person he was fighting as well.
Qrow was fast for one of the denizens of this dimension and while he was not as fast as someone like Yoruichi or Byakuya, the man was definitely a cut above all of the students. The frantic dance of deflecting his weapon was a good way to parse his skills, but Ichigo remembered that the man wanted him to prove himself. With that thought in mind, Ichigo decided to let loose a little.
His reiatsu spiked within the clearing and while the others looked surprised, Qrow merely seemed overjoyed that Ichigo was beginning to take him a least a little seriously.
"Well since you're showing me yours, I guess I'll show you mine."
With a deft flick of his wrist Qrow's sword began shifting until it took on the form of a scythe. Ichigo supposed he now knew where Ruby had learned her forms from. The man was now sporting a sharp looking scythe and had changed his stance to compensate for the new center of gravity.
The two merely stood across from one another for a beat, but then they disappeared in a flurry of motion and began exchanging blows, much to Ichigo's surprise.
He was pretty certain he was moving about the same speed that he had when he had fought Renji, so that meant that Qrow was one of the people within this world that was far more competent, definitely one of the stronger people within this world.
He was just beginning to really enjoy their fight when Ichigo slipped on a stone that was jutting out slightly within the clearing. He was off balance and Qrow pounced as soon as he saw the opening. Unfortunately for Qrow, Ichigo was no stranger to being off balance during a fight. Adjusting his center of gravity he performed a rising kick that Qrow had to leap back from and the two of them separated with Ichigo spinning from his momentum before landing on his feet, sword raised in a defensive position.
While he was sure that he could definitely get the drop on the man if he started spamming shunpo, his warrior instincts just wouldn't allow him to do so. However, before the two could resume their spar, they were interrupted by their referee.
"I think that's enough you two!"
Ichigo blinked as a wall of earth sprouted between them.
"Oh come on! It was just getting exciting!"
While Ichigo agreed with the notion, he wasn't going to go against what the professor was saying. With a disappointed sigh he sheathed his weapon and the wall crumbled away, revealing a grumbling Qrow.
"I'll admit kid's got moves. If your team works well together I'd say you're a force to be reckoned with. I guess we can bring ya into the fold after all. But I'm gonna say that it was my win overall."
Ichigo felt his eye twitch at that. Like hell he was going to give the win over to the older man.
"Maybe in your dreams old man."
Qrow snorted at that and once more took a swig from his flask that Ichigo was sure hadn't been there only a moment ago.
"Well if we're gonna do this, let's get the show on the road."
The man said this as he began walking back towards the school. Ichigo merely looked at his friends and they just shrugged to show that they weren't entirely sure what to make of the Huntsman either. With a sigh, he decided to just follow after the man.
Orihime was looking around as they once more crammed into the elevator that led up to Ozpin's office. However, this time the Headmaster had done something and she had the distinct sense of falling down.
She had been cheering on Kurosaki-kun's performance earlier and she was mildly impressed that the fully fledged Huntsman had been able to keep up with Kurosaki-kun even if he was going a bit easy on the raven haired man.
She knew that Kurosaki-kun had become much more powerful than anything that she could imagine and was shocked that even though the older man probably wasn't as fast as the Shinigami, he made up for it in skill with his weapon. She was also curious as to why Kurosaki-kun had randomly slipped during the fight as she knew that the orange haired boy was usually much more sure footed than that.
After an indeterminable amount of time, Orihime felt the elevator gradually slowing down and eventually coming to a halt. She was sure that they were further down than any other student had been before and she was curious as to what the layout could look like.
With a small hiss, the doors opened and their group stepped out into a massive hallway. Orihime was admiring the sights of the gigantic pillars, as were the others, but a small clearing of the throat from the Headmaster had their attention directed towards the man.
"Now, I'm sure that you are unaware of the various fairy tales that exist throughout Remnant, therefore I'll make this more succinct."
The man then turned and began to walk down the hallway, clearly expecting them t follow after him, which they did as soon as they realized that was what he wanted.
"For centuries there has been a fairy tale that involved the Four Maidens of the Seasons. Winter, Spring, Summer, and…"
They turned a corner and Orihime held back a startled gasp as they came to a gigantic machine that had a person hooked up inside it, comatose.
"…Fall."
Ozpin paused once more as if to gather his thoughts, but he plowed on with the explanation regardless.
"These four women throughout the world have been granted a gift, a gift which lets them utilize a great deal of power. However, there are some drawbacks."
Orihime was only semi paying attention to the Headmaster's explanation. She was far more interested in the state of the girl within the machine. The girl had darker skin and brown hair, she was also wrapped in bandages and it seemed that the only thing keeping her alive was the machine that she was residing in, oblivious to the world.
"Essentially the powers pass on to the last person that the girls are thinking of when they die. Unfortunately for us, when you are killed by someone…"
"…you're thinking about whomever it was that murdered you."
Ishida was the one to finish. Orihime nodded in agreement with that, but it looked as though the person in the machine hadn't been entirely disposed of. With that thought in mind, Orihime gained a determined air about her.
She was positive that as long as the person was not dead, her Shun Shun Rikka would reject any ailment that someone was suffering from, be it disease or a mortal wound.
"This is why you needed me."
Her soft voice cut off Ozpin's declaration and the man gave a small defeated nod at her assertion.
The girl of team IUOY merely smile a she looked over towards the girl hanging by a thread in the machine. Orihime brushed her hand behind her ear and then decided that there was no use in waiting on anything.
"Soten Kisshun, I reject!"
Her hair clips flew out and covered the girl within an orange shield. For a moment there was nothing happening, but Orihime knew that she could do this. She would do this!
In response to her unwavering will the glow became more pronounced, filling the chamber with light.
Finally, after moments of waiting, a pair of brown eyes snapped open, the edges filled with an orange fire.
Hello again.
I've been blitzing through five stories that are going to be active throughout my profile due to me Big Update for my launching of P a treon page and now we're on this one. Now I won't be blocking any sort of access on the fanfiction site to my stories or gating them, this is simply a way for me to push myself into updating faster and gaining revenue to launch an anime review site. I had had a review site before, but it is now defunct due to struggling funds. If you're feeling generous go on over to p a treon .com (slash) RedhathackerSin, just take out the spaces and make the slash a symbol. I've already posted two anime reviews there, one for patrons and one for the general public. I've also put a poll purely for patrons on which of the five active stories that I've just updated I should do once more before the month of June is out.
I just wanted to say that I'm flattered that the attention that this story has gotten was so positive, especially since it was only two chapters before this one. I love seeing the reviews favs and follows and I was very grateful in the first chapter that I had so many suggestions for team names. I've also decided to go back and do a big edit of all posted chapters (chapter one was not up to my usual standards) and I should have that done within the next week.
A bit shorter on the author's note this time, but thanks for all the interesting ideas of pairings and what not. I hope this particular chapter meets your standards as I really enjoy writing RWBY fandom.
If you're feeling generous hit that fav follow, or leave a review. If you're feeling even more generous check out the P a treon. Until next time!
Disclaimer: RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum! While Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo! Please support the official release!
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